optikeye:I think it's in the best interested of the public. We have lots of older radios that only pick up AM. Tube style radios are immune to a EMP (Either from a Man Made or Natural). And to really put on your tin foil hat...Crystal Radios.Don't even require a battery. And a six year old can build one.

[thumbs2.ebaystatic.com image 223x225]

Also Digital Signals don't degrade gracefully...they are there are they're not so there's no "Buzzz...Crack" losing just a bit of info occasionally. If the Signal is week YOU GET NOTHING. (Wonka.jpg).

Not exactly "nothing". Have you heard D-Star (digital ham radio mode)? Weak signals "go R2D2". I did the computer side of a D-Star installation and had an ICOM rig to play with for a few months. Got bored with it fast. It's too bad they didn't squeeze more fidelity out of that mode - sounds like a bad cell phone even with a clean strong signal. Hopefully something better will come along.

AgentKGB:Representative of the unwashed masses: Branch Floridian: It still puts a smile on my face when I can pick up my hometown radio station (KMOX 1120 in St. Louis) in my car from over a thousand miles away. Only at night or early morning, but still I think it is pretty cool.

I once was able to listen to a Los Angeles Dodgers game on an LA station one night when I was helping out on my uncles farm in Saskatchewan. I thought that was pretty damn cool

This. I grew up in Saskatchewan and some nights you could go through the AM dial and get LA, Phoenix, etc.

I used to regularly listen to WOWO (Ft. Wayne, Indiana) and WLS (Chicago) at the oceanfront at Virginia Beach, VA

I've always loved AM radio. Ever since I was a kid growing up listening to AM 1000 in Chicago, Johnny B, Kevin Matthews, Steve and Garry. I remember listening to the Blackhawks and the Cubs with my dad and grandpa and staying up late to hear the sex advice show late at night with my aunt. AM radio is just so nostalgic and comforting to me. Like others have said, I love tuning in stations from far away, or when I'm driving late at night, finding some weird talk show to keep me company.

When I was smaller, we had to drive back and forth from Chicago to Rochester, NY about three times a year and I remember being snuggled under blankets in the backseat of the station wagon, everyone asleep, my dad tuning in the static filled WGN to catch the scores and highlights. It helped put me to sleep. I still listen to talk radio whenever I can, but I think the hay day of great AM radio is well past.

We used to have a "Progressive" AM station in PDX but now it's a sports station, so other than the occasional curiosity of seeing what wacko they have on Coast to Coast, AM is basically worthless around here.

Dogpants:I once worked at a clear channel AM station that reached 38 states and 4 provinces of Canada after dark. One time I got a postcard from a guy that was picking us up loud and clear in Iceland. Crackpot preachers until midnight, then country music for the truckers overnight. We'd get requests from all over the country.

That sounds like WLAC out of Nashville. I first discovered WLAC in the early '90s when they had the crazy preachers. One was Roosevelt Franklin and he sold what I remember them calling a 'trouble doll.' The announcer would say that Mr. Smith's gout healed itself after he bought a trouble doll and stuff like that. The best was that a lady's son got out of jail after she bought a trouble doll.

I've loved AM radio ever since then. At night in my car I can get a million stations and there's always something that's entertaining.

Any of you geezers ever pick up KOMA out of Oklahoma City? I worked overnights on their sister FM station (KRXO) and used to do character voices on the mighty 1520AM...they had a map in the studio with pins from all the different places they received phone calls from in the middle of the night (a clear channel station as mentioned above). They used to get letters from DXers in Norway, Russia, etc. requesting bumper stickers, and they would write out word-for-word what the jock was saying at the time they picked up the signal or tell you what song was on. It was quite cool.

Lance Russell's Nose:Dogpants: I once worked at a clear channel AM station that reached 38 states and 4 provinces of Canada after dark. One time I got a postcard from a guy that was picking us up loud and clear in Iceland. Crackpot preachers until midnight, then country music for the truckers overnight. We'd get requests from all over the country.

That sounds like WLAC out of Nashville. I first discovered WLAC in the early '90s when they had the crazy preachers. One was Roosevelt Franklin and he sold what I remember them calling a 'trouble doll.' The announcer would say that Mr. Smith's gout healed itself after he bought a trouble doll and stuff like that. The best was that a lady's son got out of jail after she bought a trouble doll.

I've loved AM radio ever since then. At night in my car I can get a million stations and there's always something that's entertaining.

optikeye:We had a cabin on a river...where the only free signal you could get was AM radio. AM can go lots of miles and doesn't require any special subscriptions.That the most compelling argument is asking "Why" sell it off? AM transmission are free to anyone with a coil of wire and couple of crystals. Why should that be stopped?

Who profits from selling off that bandwidth? Moving to a subscription only services for radio is simply putting a vital emergency commutation ability into the hands of corporations that would require selling not only subscriptions but also specialized receivers with built in digital rights management built in.

Odd that all this stuff is being sold off and I've never received a check. Coal, lumber, oil, roads. About everything we had you can imagine.

I remember my crystal radio. Also back then they played some reruns of the old mysteries and scary shows where they made all the sounds in the studio. Clip clop clip clop. I'd listen in bed in the dark.

Back in the 30's my dad and uncle used to listen to the big bands out of Chicago on dads home made Crystal Radio he made out of an oatmeal cylinder. They would each share an ear phone. We lived in Rochester at the time, I got the radio bug from him.

Otto's_Jacket:Any of you geezers ever pick up KOMA out of Oklahoma City? I worked overnights on their sister FM station (KRXO) and used to do character voices on the mighty 1520AM...they had a map in the studio with pins from all the different places they received phone calls from in the middle of the night (a clear channel station as mentioned above). They used to get letters from DXers in Norway, Russia, etc. requesting bumper stickers, and they would write out word-for-word what the jock was saying at the time they picked up the signal or tell you what song was on. It was quite cool.

Listened to it as a kid in the late 80's Nebraska. Was quite bummed when they moved the music to FM and went all religious.

We were 5000w at 540khz in Louisiana. Easy 200 mile coverage in any direction. Left at daytime power by accident once and I heard it in Wyoming. We recieved many letter from Norway and Sweden. Also the New Zealand and Australia area. FM can never match the distance of AM radio. AM has a long life ahead with HD digital broadcast. FM quality over AM distance. In the event of a major national disaster it is invaluable. I could cobble together a AM station with a transmitter and 400 feet of wire and a small honda generator and cover a multistate area. But keep thinking the internet and cell phones will save you. My sprint service doest work if I get 5 miles from a major interstate. Look up WLW for the nations station 500kw station. That thing covered North and South America and was ofter heard in Europe.

Fursecution:Otto's_Jacket: Any of you geezers ever pick up KOMA out of Oklahoma City? I worked overnights on their sister FM station (KRXO) and used to do character voices on the mighty 1520AM...they had a map in the studio with pins from all the different places they received phone calls from in the middle of the night (a clear channel station as mentioned above). They used to get letters from DXers in Norway, Russia, etc. requesting bumper stickers, and they would write out word-for-word what the jock was saying at the time they picked up the signal or tell you what song was on. It was quite cool.

Listened to it as a kid in the late 80's Nebraska. Was quite bummed when they moved the music to FM and went all religious.

I worked at the station while I was in college (from 1989-1991) and would jump on KOMA almost every weekend overnight while I was playing long songs on the FM side...that oldies format was a hell of a lot of fun with one liner jokes in between each 2:00 song, all night long. The weekend overnight AM jock who would let me on the air with him would drink an entire 6-pack of Jolt cola during his shift so he could maintain the "do-wop" style jock energy he felt he needed. Good times, good times...

merrillvillain:WGN 720 is the only station I listen to. It is not political and I get to hear Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano. Gary Meyer at 3 pm is also worth listening to especially when Tom Skilling stops by.

I pick up WGN on a regular basis over the air in Texas after dark. The signal gets boosted around the tail end of Garry's show. Sometimes I get a little bleedover from some (presumably) Mexican station playing mariachi music, but when they say 38 states, that isn't marketing-department bullshiat.

rick42:Dogpants: I once worked at a clear channel AM station that reached 38 states and 4 provinces of Canada after dark. One time I got a postcard from a guy that was picking us up loud and clear in Iceland. Crackpot preachers until midnight, then country music for the truckers overnight. We'd get requests from all over the country.

Sounds like WWVA in Wheeling. I picked that up once as a kid and they were running announcements telling coal miners which shifts would be working at certain mines--and so, by extension, how well some of them would be eating in the coming days. They don't teach you stuff like that in school.

The station I worked at was KXEL in Waterloo, Iowa, 50kw at night at 1540 khz. I remember as a kid (late '60s--get off my lawn) learning about hippie music on KAAY in Little Rock--"Beeker Street", (which we called "Reefer Street") late at night. Sounded unlike anything I'd ever heard in Iowa! Later would listen to WBAP in Fort Worth in the early morning while driving to work to sign on another station in Northeast Iowa, KNEI in Waukon. Loved doing radio, although the most I ever made was $17,900 a year as a news director in a top 100 market.

I don't know why it hasn't been mentioned yet, but one of the coolest things that can be done with AM is park a bit transmitter in Seoul and broadcast the real world to a bunch of people who are starving for information in "Best Korea"

I am not sure if they are doing this, but there is a REAL use for AM that can really change the world. I assume that they are.

It's not going anywhere. Have a ton of am stations here, quite a few still are music stations, playing oldies, older oldies, adult contemporary, top 40, nostalgia (1920-30's), childrens, classic rock, gospel, hip hop, and variety. Along with a much broader range of news, sports, and talk shows than most much bigger cities can claim. And liberals on talk, too.

The hip hop station WAMO sadly changed from soul, rnb less than 10yrs ago. along with the fm stations playing current rock at the time it was my main station growing up. Motown ftw.

Yinz might have more am stations and formats than you think. Try radio-locator.com. select your city ; there are filtering options at the bottom of the page.

/Pgh//has first commercial radio station KDKA Nov.2 1920///KDKA tv (started as WDTV) began in 1949, the first local station to create a network; had 13 stations spanning Boston to St.Louis